Aviva Research reveals 8 million workers hiding secret stress

25% of people said they had taken a day off work with stress but blamed it on a physical illness

A third of people have taken a day off because of stress at some stage of their career

Money is the most common cause of stress, followed by relationships

New research from Aviva has revealed a startling number of British workers are suffering from stress – but taking steps to hide it from their employers.

A quarter of people (25%) surveyed admitted taking a day off work with stress but then blamed it on a physical illness. Based on the current number of people working in the UK, it indicates that almost eight million people are suffering in silence.

Aviva’s research also found that a third of people (33%) have taken a day off work with stress at some stage in their career. 25-34 year olds were the most likely to have taken time off (46%) with those aged over 55 seemingly the least likely to need time away from work (25%).

More than half of men (53%) who had taken a day off work with stress at some stage in their career said they had done so in the last year, compared to just a third of women (34%).

Those who have needed time away from work with stress in the last year took an average of six days off, but stress can clearly impact people in different ways and for different lengths of time. When asked ‘how many days have you taken off work with stress in the last year?’ the most common response was 1-2 days (31%), but 6% of people who needed time away from work within the last year said they had taken 11 or more.

More than a quarter of people cited money as their main cause of stress (27%), followed by relationships (15%), health (13%) and work (13%). However, one in five people (20%) said that they have no causes of stress in their life at all.

The research provided more positive evidence that the stigma around stress and other mental health problems in the workplace is being reduced. A third of people (33%) said they would now feel more comfortable talking about it than they would have done five years ago, compared to just 1 in 8 (12%) who said they would feel less comfortable.

Steve Bridger, Managing Director of Group Protection at Aviva, said:

“In 2016 people should not feel that they have to hide their stress away and suffer in silence. Feeling that you can’t be open about a problem is likely to make it worse, not better. People don’t raise an eyebrow if a colleague is off work with flu, but anything to do with mental health still appears to be taboo.

“The most recent government figures say that 15 million working days a year are being lost because of stress and mental illness so this is clearly something employers need to focus on.

“It’s really encouraging to see that some people are feeling more comfortable and confident about being open on mental health in the workplace. That trend needs to continue. This can be helped by creating a culture within an organisation which is open and supportive. Line manager training programmes can help identify people who may be suffering with a problem while access to external support such as an Employee Assistance Programme can offer fast and direct support when it’s needed.

“Mental wellbeing is a dynamic spectrum that applies to all of us, rather than just a few people some of the time. We all experience stress to varying degrees at some point in our lives so it is something we can all relate to.”

For more information on how people can improve their work-life balance or sleeping patterns, our research can be found here: